Datastage - Admin

Introduction:

In this section, we will see different clients available as part of DataStage installation and how to connect to them and explore various options and features available.

Connecting to DataStage Clients:

First let us see how to connect to DataStage and see various parameters required for logging in.

If you do not already have a connection to DataStage from your PC then you will need to connect your DataStage client to the DataStage server. Find the client that you wish to connect, perhaps from a desktop shortcut, perhaps from the Start menu.  This invokes the Attach to Project dialog, illustrated here.

Within that dialog you must supply the host name or IP address of the machine on which the DataStage server is running (the Metadata/App Server hostname), the login ID and password that authenticates you to that machine, then choose the project in which you wish to work from the drop-down list. The Project name is a combination of the DataStage Server name and the actual DataStage Project name. In this illustration, the DataStage Server name and Metadata Server name are both same, this is because, both are installed on same machine. They will differ, if the App Server and DataStage engine are split between different servers or if there are additional DataStage engines hosted on different servers and you wish to connect to the additional server.

If you have previously successfully connected to a DataStage project, the host system, user name and Project fields are pre-populated with values from that connection.  You must, of course, re-enter your password.

If you already have a connection to DataStage from your PC using Designer, Director, then you can open other client tools from that client’s Tools menu.

DataStage Developer Clients:

DataStage Designer:

The Designer client is where you create and compile jobs. It is also possible to run jobs from Designer, though mainframe jobs cannot be run from Designer. Server jobs may be run in debug mode in Designer. It acts as a browser into the Repository, the database associated with a project.

Designer Client can be used to import table definitions from various sources as well as DataStage components exported from any project (provided that it’s not at a higher version number).  You can also create some kinds of components, such as Data Elements and Routines, and edit the properties of an extant object.

Designer Client is the graphical user interface in which you draw the pictures, using stages and links, of the data flow that you wish to implement, and then fill in the details by editing the properties of the job, the stages and the links to make the design absolutely specific about what you intend to happen.

It is in the Designer, too, that you compile the job design to produce executable code; in the case of parallel jobs this will primarily be OSH script, but may also include some generated C++ code. In the case of job sequences the code generated will be DataStage BASIC.  In both cases, you are able to inspect the generated code. This will be covered in more detail later.

Here we see the Designer client illustrated.  In its title bar are shown the server identity and the name of the project to which the Designer is connected. On the left hand side there is the Palette, from which components can be added to the job design, and a browser into the Repository. There is a standard menu and standard toolbar across the top.  In the right hand pane there are at least two job designs open; the one on top is a parallel job called Warehouse_03 (from its title bar). * Mark on the title bar of the job indicates it is under editing.

The job design itself consists of a number of stages (icons) connected to each other by links (arrows) that indicate the flow of data in the design. Links painted as long dashed lines in this design handle rows that are rejected within the job design, either because of metadata mismatch or because of a failed condition.  Because the stages and links follow a standard naming convention, it is even easier to understand what is intended.

Designer Toolbars: There are, indeed, more toolbars in Designer than were visible in the previous illustration.  There are five in all, listed here – Standard, Palette, Repository, Property Browser, and Debug Bar.

All but the last toolbar are visible for all job types; the Debug bar is only enabled for server jobs.

These toolbars are all illustrated on the above image, which shows a server job rather than a parallel job (so that the Debug bar can be rendered visible).

Every toolbar in Designer floats, as can be seen with the Property Browser in this illustration.

Each toolbar can be anchored against any side of the window.  In this illustration the standard and Debug bars are anchored at the top, while the Palette and Repository toolbars are anchored against the left hand side of the Designer window. Every toolbar can be hidden (closed), and rendered visible again via the View menu.

DataStage Repository:

As said earlier, we can render visible Repository window in DataStage Designer, This Repository toolbar is a browser into the Repository of the selected project.  It has a Windows Explorer look and feel. One view is repository view showing the major branches in the Repository.  Second one contains a detailed view, but only if a leaf node of the tree view is selected. In Detail view, short descriptions and date/time modified are displayed.  If used wisely these can aid selection of the correct component.

You can use the Repository tree to browse and manage objects in the repository.

The Designer enables you to store the following types of object in the repository (listed in alphabetical order):

·        Data connections

·        Data elements

·        IMS™ Database (DBD)

·        IMS Viewset (PSB/PCB)

·        Jobs

·        Machine profiles

·        Match specifications

·        Parameter sets

·        Routines

·        Shared containers

·        Stage types

·        Table definitions

·        Transforms

When you first open IBM InfoSphere DataStage you will see the repository tree organized with preconfigured folders for these object types, but you can arrange your folders as you like and rename the preconfigured ones if required. You can store any type of object within any folder in the repository tree. You can also add your own folders to the tree. This allows you, for example, to keep all objects relating to a particular job in one folder. You can also nest folders one within another.

Note: Certain built-in objects cannot be moved in the repository tree

Click the blue bar at the side of the repository tree to open the detailed view of the repository. The detailed view gives more details about the objects in the repository tree and you can configure it in the same way that you can configure a Windows Explorer view. Click the blue bar again to close the detailed view.

You can view a sketch of job designs in the repository tree by hovering the mouse over the job icon in the tree. A tooltip opens displaying a thumbnail of the job design. (You can disable this option in the Designer Options.)

When you open an object in the repository tree, you have a lock on that object and no other users can change it while you have that lock (although they can look at read-only copies).

In this illustration of Repository, there are a few points to note.

The name of the host machine and the name of the project are displayed in the title bar.  You always know in which project you are working. The tree view is expanded on the Stage Types branch.  Because the selected branch is as fully expanded as it can be (that is, a leaf node is selected), the right-hand pane contains a list of the elements that belong in that particular category. In this illustration, the category is Parallel\Database.

Currently detail view is selected, which means that the individual descriptions of the stage types are displayed.  This makes choosing the appropriate component easier, as you have more information available. It is possible to view more information about each object by customizing detailed view. To do this, right-click on header (say, Name) and select more, a pop-up shows up displaying what all properties you can select. Please see the properties that you select will be visible in this list view and in the export window while you export jobs from Repository.

Major Categories:

Not all the categories shown in the previous illustration will be available.  For example, the IMS Databases and IMS Viewsets categories are only available if IMS is licensed, and the Machine Profiles category is only available if the mainframe edition is licensed.  No matter which edition is licensed, the seven major categories listed here are always available.  These will be covered in greater detail later; for now here is a quick summary.

·        Data Elements are like user-defined data types that more precisely describe data classes (for example CustomerID, TelephoneNumber).

·        Jobs are executable units. Properties of existing can be accessed, jobs must be edited in Designer.

·        Routines are custom transform BASIC functions, before/after subroutines, interludes to external parallel routines, or references to mainframe routines.

·        Shared Containers are a mechanism for making subsets of job designs reusable in more than one job.

·        Stage Types are the classes from which stages in job designs are instantiated.

·        Table Definitions are collections of column definitions and any other associated information about persistent data (for example format of sequential file, owner of database table).

·        Transforms are pre-stored, and therefore re-usable, BASIC expressions. They can only be used in server jobs and parallel job BASIC Transformer stages.

Connecting to another Client

If you have one of the two clients (Designer or Director) open, you can connect to one of the other clients by opening the Tools menu.  On this menu you will find options to Run the other clients.  For example, from Director, the option is Run Designer. From Designer, it is Run Director.

Taking this path means that your current authentication can be re-used so that you do not need to enter user ID or password, or choose a project to which to connect.

DataStage Director Client

The Director client can be used to run jobs straight away or to schedule them to be run at some future time(s). The Director client is also used to determine the status of jobs, and to inspect the logs that jobs

generated. Mainframe jobs are only run on the mainframe machines, so there is no Director interaction with mainframe jobs.  The Director client can also be used to override project-default job log purge parameters and to set run-time default values for job parameters.

The Director client has four different views.  Inside Director, one can see only Jobs in the Repository and not other components.

·        Status view shows the most recently recorded status of all jobs in the currently selected category. It is possible, through the View menu, to disable the use of categories and thus to show all jobs in the project but, as the project grows, populating this window will take longer and longer.

·        Log view shows the job log for the currently selected job. The most recent run is shown in black, the previous run in dark blue, and any earlier runs in a lighter blue.

·        Schedule view shows jobs in the currently selected category and whether they have been scheduled (from DataStage) to run at some time in the future. It is also possible to schedule jobs to run using third-party scheduling tools, but these are not reported in the Schedule view in Director.

·        Monitor view allows row counts for active stages and their connected links to be displayed along with rows/second figures. CPU consumption can also be reported.

Director – Status View

This is an illustration of Director’s status view.

In the title bar are the identity (here, IP address) of the DataStage server and the project to which Director client is connected.  In the status bar (at the bottom) are the count of jobs in the currently selected category and, on the bottom right, the server time.  All times reported are the server time.  This is very important for offshore developers, for whom local time might be substantially different from the server time.

Each job has its most recent status displayed in the Status column.  Also displayed are the most recent start time, the most recent finished time and the corresponding elapsed time (rounded to the nearest whole second) plus the description of the job (one of the job’s properties).

 Director – Log View

In Log view the name of the currently selected job is reported in the status bar, along with the number of entries visible (and the fact, here, that a filter is being used) and the server time.

Entries for the most recent run are in black text; the previous run in dark blue. Green icons indicate informational messages, yellow icons indicate warning messages (non-fatal), and red icons indicate fatal errors, which caused the job to abort. You should aim to create jobs that never produce anything but informational messages; thus, if a warning occurs, something unexpected has occurred (and you can deal with it). Any logged event that has a diaresis (…) at the end of its message contains more text than is viewable in summary view.  Double clicking an event (or choosing Detail from the View menu) opens the Event Detail dialog, in which the remainder of the message can be seen.

However, there is sufficient information in this summary view to determine the cause of the problem (unable to create file, indicating either a permissions problem or a missing directory).  This is the log of a server job; logs for parallel jobs tend to be more verbose, as they potentially report from multiple processing nodes.

There is a short cut from Designer to the job log; under the Debug menu there is an option to View Job Log (for Server jobs).

Director – Schedule View

Schedule view (the clock icon fourth from the left on the toolbar) shows any jobs that have been scheduled from the Director client, along with the parameter values and/or descriptions associated therewith.  Jobs scheduled from the Director use the operating system scheduler (AT on Windows, cron or at on UNIX).

Note: Most projects use third party schedulers like Ctrl-M, AutoSys for scheduling DataStage jobs.

Director – Job Monitor

Use the monitor window to view summary information about relevant stages in a job that is being run or validated.

The monitor window displays stages in a job and associated links in a tree structure. For server jobs active stages are shown (active stages are those that perform processing rather than ones reading or writing a data source). For parallel jobs, all stages are shown.

The window has the following controls and fields:

Stage name – For parallel jobs, this column displays the names of all stages in the job. For server jobs, this column displays the names of stages that perform processing (for example, Transformer stages).Link Type

Link Type – When you have selected a link in the tree, displays the type of link as follows:

<<Pri – stream input link

<Ref – reference input link

>Out – output link

>Rej – reject output link

Status – The status of the stage. The possible states are:

·        Aborted – The process finished abnormally at this stage.

·        Finished – All data has been processed by the stage.

·        Ready – The stage is ready to process the data.

·        Running – Data is being processed by the stage.

·        Starting – The processing is starting.

·        Stopped – The processing was stopped manually at this stage.

·        Waiting – The stage is waiting to start processing.

·        Num rows – This column displays the number of rows of data processed so far by each stage on its primary input.

·        Started at – This column shows the time that processing started on the engine.

·        Elapsed time – This column shows the elapsed time since processing of the stage began.

·        Rows/sec – This column displays the number of rows that are processed per second.

·        %CP – The percentage of CPU the stage is using (you can turn the display of this column on and off from the shortcut menu)

·        Interval – This option sets how often the window is updated with information from the engine. Click the arrow buttons to increase or decrease the value, or enter the value directly. The default setting is 10, the minimum is 5, and the maximum is 65.

·        Job name – The name of the job that is being monitored.

·        Status – The status of the job

·        Project – The name of the project and the computer that is hosting the engine tier.

·        Server time – The current time on the computer that is hosting the engine tier.

If you are monitoring a parallel job, and have not chosen to view instance information, the monitor displays additional information for Parallel jobs as follows:

·        If a stage is running in parallel, then x N is appended to the stage name, where N gives how many instances are running.

·        If a stage is running in parallel then the Num Rows column shows the total number of rows processed by all instances. The Rows/sec is derived from this value and shows the total throughput of all instances.

·        If a stage is running in parallel then the %CP might be more than 100 if there are multiple CPUs. For example, on a machine with four CPUs, %CP could be as high as 400® where a stage is occupying 100% of each of the four processors, alternatively, if the stage is occupying only 25% of each processor the %CP would be 100%.

Filters in Director

Every view in Director has a filter. Status and Schedule view allow you to filter on job name (you can use wildcards) and on job status (for example you can select non-compiled jobs only). Log view allows you to filter on event date and event severity (for example omit informational messages).  By default, Log view has a filter that shows only the most recent 100 entries; if there are more entries in the log than this, then a warning message box pops up when Log view is opened. Monitor view filter allows %CPU to be selected or de-selected.In all views (except Monitor) the filter dialog can be opened by pressing Ctrl-T, or by right-clicking in the unused background area. In Monitor view only right clicking in the background area works.

DataStage Administrator Client

The Administrator client is used primarily to create and delete projects and, mainly for newly-created projects, to set project-wide defaults, for example when job logs will automatically be purged of old entries.  These defaults apply only to objects created subsequently in the project; changing a default value does not affect any existing objects in the project.

The things that can be set in the Administrator that relate specifically to parallel jobs are enabling runtime propagation, setting environment variables and enabling visibility of generated Orchestrate shell (OSH) scripts. It is also possible to specify advanced command line options for OSH and default formats for date, time, timestamp and decimal data types.

Connecting to Administrator

Invoke the Administrator client from the Windows Start menu, or from a desktop shortcut. This brings up the Attach to DataStage dialog, where you fill in the host name or IP address of the Domain/Metadata Server (Services Tier), the login ID and password of an administrative user that has permission to configure projects and host name of Information Server Engine

Once authentication details are supplied, clicking OK invokes the “InfoSphere DataStage Administration – <ServerEngine>”dialog.

On the General tab information about the server version is displayed; if NLS is enabled it can be configured, and a client/server inactivity timeout can be configured.

“Suite Admin” takes you to Information Server Web Console.

Grid support is available if at least one project is configured to run parallel jobs on a Grid.

Projects Tab:

The Projects tab displays a list of projects currently defined on the server, and provides means for adding and deleting projects, executing a command in a project, and a button called Properties that invokes the Project Properties dialog, shown in next slide.

The controls and buttons on the Projects page are as follows:

·        Project list: The main window lists all the projects that exist on the Information Server engine.

·        Project pathname: The path name of the project currently selected in the Project list.

·        Add: Click this to add a new project, the Add Project dialog box opens. This button is enabled only if you have administrator status.

·        Delete: Click this to delete the project currently selected in the Project list. This button is enabled only if you have administrator status.

·        Properties: Click this to view the properties of the project currently selected in the Project list. The Project Properties dialog box opens.

·        NLS: Click this to open the Project NLS Settings dialog box.

·        Command: Click this to open the Command Interface dialog box which you can use to issue commands to the InfoSphere Information Server engine that you are administering.

Suite Admin: Click this to open the Suite Administrator tool in a browser window. Use the Suite Administrator tool to perform common Administrator tasks associated with the suite server backbone.

Project Properties

When we choose a Project and click on the Properties button shown in the previous slide, Project Properties dialog gets invoked as shown here.

·        Enable job administration in Director: Click this to enable the Cleanup Job Resources and Clear Status File commands in the Job menu in the InfoSphere™ DataStage® Director. Setting this option also enables the Cleanup Job Resources command in the Monitor window shortcut menu in the Director.

·        Enable Runtime Column Propagation for Parallel Jobs: If you enable this feature, parallel jobs can handle undefined columns that they encounter when the job is run, and propagate these columns through to the rest of the job. Be warned, however, that enabling runtime column propagation can result in very large data sets.

Selecting this option makes the following subproperty available:

·        Enable Runtime Column Propagation for new links: Select this to have runtime column propagation enabled by default when you add a new link in an InfoSphere DataStage job. If you do not select this, you will need to enable it for individual links in stage editors when you are designing the job.

Enable editing of internal references in jobs: Select this to enable the editing of the Table definition reference and Column definition reference fields in the column definitions of stage editors. You can only edit the fields in the Edit Column Metadata dialog box, or by column propagation. The Table definition reference and Column definition reference fields identify the table definition and individual columns within that definition that columns have been, that columns have been loaded from. These fields are enabled on the stage editor’s Columns tab via the Grid Properties dialog box.

·        Share metadata when importing from connectors: This option is selected by default. When metadata is imported using a connector, then the metadata appears in both the shared repository and the project repository.

·        Protect project: Click this to protect the current project. This button is only enabled if you have production manager status. If the project is already protected the button says Unprotect project and you can click it to convert the project back to an ordinary one (again you must have Production Manager Status to do this. (Note that, on UNIX systems, only root or the administrative user can currently protect and unprotect projects).

·        Environment: Click this to open the Environment Variables dialog box. This enables you to set project-wide default values for environment variables.

·        Generate operational metadata: Select this option to have parallel and server jobs in the project generate operational metadata by default. You can override this setting in individual jobs if required.

Environment Variables

Click on Environment to open Environment Variables dialog box. Here, we can set project-wide defaults for general environment variables or ones specific to parallel jobs. You can also specify new variables. All of these are then available to be used in jobs.

Parallel jobs – or, more precisely, the parallel engine – make extensive use of environment variables.  Names beginning with “APT_” are related to the parallel engine or to operators that it invokes.  This dialog also allows a developer to create user defined environment variables that might, for example, subsequently be used to provide values to job parameters.

Don’t change any environment variables without seeking advice on the likely impact of doing so. If you need to define additional environment variables this will generally be OK, but still seek advice until you have a little more experience.

Permissions Page

Before any user can access InfoSphere DataStage they must be defined in the Suite Administrator tool as a DataStage Administrator or a DataStage User. As a DataStage administrator you can define whether a DataStage user can access a project, and if so, what category of access they have. If you want to add DataStage Developers, DataStage Operators, or DataStage Super Operators to a project, these users must be assigned the DataStage User role in the Suite Administrator tool. If they have the DataStage Administrator role they will automatically have administrator privileges and you cannot restrict their access in the Permissions page.

Using the Suite Administrator tool you can also add groups and assign users to groups. These groups are in turn allocated the role of DataStage Administrator or DataStage User. Any users belong to an administrator group will be able to administer InfoSphere DataStage. As a DataStage Administrator you can give a DataStage user group access to a project and assign a role to the group.

When setting up users and groups, these still have to have the correct permissions at the operating system level to access the folders in which the projects reside.

You can also change the default view of job log entries for those who have the DataStage Operator or DataStage Super Operator role.

The Permissions page contains the following controls:

Roles: This window lists all the users and groups who currently have access to this project and lists their roles. Note that this window will always include users who have been defined as DataStage Administrators in the Suite Administrator tool, and you cannot remove such users from the list or alter their user role.

User Role: This list contains the four categories of InfoSphere DataStage user you can assign. Choose one from the list to assign it to the user currently selected in the roles window.

Add User or Group: Click this to open the Add Users/Groups dialog box in order to add a new user or group to the ones listed in the roles window.

Remove: Click this to remove the selected user or group from those listed in the roles window.

DataStage Operator can view full log: By default this check box is selected, letting an InfoSphere DataStage operator view both the error message and the data associated with an entry in a job log file. To hide the data part of the log file entry from operators, clear this check box. Access to the data is then restricted to users with a developer role or better.

In the above dialog, choose “Add User or Group”. This displays available users/groups on the left hand side and selected users on the right hand side. Similarly, it is possible to remove a user or a group. 

Tracing Page

Use the Tracing page to trace activity on the InfoSphere™ Information Server engine. This can help to diagnose project problems.

The page contains the following controls:

Enabled: Enables tracing on the engine. Information that might help to identify the cause of a client problem is stored in trace files. To interpret this information you will require in-depth knowledge of the system software.

Trace files: Lists the trace files to which information about engine activity is sent.

View: Click this to display the trace file selected in the Trace files list.

Delete: Click this to delete the trace files selected in the Trace files list.

Tunable Page

Use the Tunables page to set cache parameters for Hashed File stages and to enable row buffering in server jobs. When a Hashed File stage writes records to a hashed file, there is an option for the write to be cached rather than written to the hashed file immediately. Similarly, when a Hashed File stage is reading a hashed file there is an option to pre-load the file to memory, which makes subsequent access very much faster and is used when the file is providing a reference link to a Transformer stage. (UniData stages also offer the option of pre-loading files to memory, in which case the same cache size is used). The Hashed file stage area of the Tunables page lets you configure the size if the read and write caches.

The page contains the following controls:

Read cache size (MB): Specify the size of the read cache in Megabytes. The default is 128.

Write cache size (MB): Specify the size of the write cache in Megabytes. The default is 128.

Enable row buffer: The use of row buffering can greatly enhance performance in server jobs. Select this check box to enable this feature for the whole project. The following option buttons are then enabled:

In-process: In-process row buffering allows connected active stages to pass data via data buffers rather than row by row. Choosing this type of row buffering will improve the performance of most server jobs. Note that you cannot use in-process row buffering if your jobs currently use COMMON blocks to pass data between stages. This is not recommended practice and it is advisable to redesign your job to use row buffering rather than COMMON blocks.

Inter-process: Use this if you are running server jobs on a SMP parallel system. This enables the job to run using a separate process for each active stage, which can then run simultaneously on separate processes. Note that you cannot use inter-process row buffering if your jobs currently use COMMON blocks to pass data between stages. This is not recommended practice and it is advisable to redesign your job to use row buffering rather than COMMON blocks.

Buffer size: Specifies the size of the buffer used by in-process or inter-process row buffering. Defaults to 128 Kilobytes.

Timeout: Only applies when inter-process row buffering is used. Specifies the time one process will wait to communicate with another via the buffer before timing out. Defaults to 10 seconds.

Parallel Page

On the Parallel tab are three main areas.

The check box allows generated Orchestrate shell (OSH) to be visible. This can be useful to have when troubleshooting/debugging.

The advanced runtime options allows additional command options to be specified that govern the way in which parallel jobs execute at run time.

The format defaults will generally be left at system default. If ever you have problems with formats, you will probably need to set up some kind of job-specific or stage-specific override, cast or transformation to re-format that particular item of data into the expected format.

Use the Parallel page to set certain parallel job properties and to set defaults for date/time and number formats.

The page contains the following controls:

Enable grid support for parallel jobs: Select this option to run the jobs in this project in a grid system, under the control of a resource manager. If you select this option on non-grid systems, you can design jobs suitable for deployment on a grid system.

Grid: Click Grid to open the Static resource configuration for grid window. Use this window to specify which static resources are available to be allocated for job runs on a grid system. Static resources include fixed-name servers such as database servers, SAN servers, SAS servers, and remote storage disks. The grid is populated from a master configuration file, and you can use this window to select which of the resources defined in the master configuration file are available to the jobs in your project.

Generated OSH visible for Parallel jobs in ALL projects: If you enable this, you will be able to view the code that is generated by parallel jobs at various points in the Designer and Director:

·        In the Job Properties dialog box for parallel jobs.

·        In the job run log message.

·        When you use the View Data facility in the Designer.

·        In the Table Definition dialog box.

Note that selecting this option enables this feature for all projects, not just the one currently selected.

Advanced runtime options for Parallel Jobs: This field allows experienced Orchestrate users to enter parameters that are added to the OSH command line. Under normal circumstances this should be left blank. You can use this field to specify the -nosortinsertion and the -nopartinsertion options. These prevent the automatic insertion of sort and partition operations where InfoSphere™ DataStage® considers they are required. This applies to all jobs in the project.

Message Handler for Parallel Jobs: Allows you to specify a message handler for all the parallel jobs in this project. You define message handlers in the InfoSphere DataStage Designer or Director. They allow you to specify how certain warning or information messages generated by parallel jobs are handled. Choose one of the predefined handlers from the list.

Format defaults: This area allows you to override the system default formats for dates, times, timestamps, and decimal separators. To change a default, clear the corresponding System default check box, then either select a new format from the drop down list or type in a new format.

Sequence Page

Use this page to set compilation defaults for job sequences. You can optionally have InfoSphere™ DataStage® add checkpoints to a job sequence so that, if part of the sequence fails, you do not necessarily have to start again from the beginning. You can fix the problem and rerun the sequence from the point at which it failed. You can also specify that InfoSphere DataStage automatically handle failing jobs within a sequence (this means that you do not have to have a specific trigger for job failure).

The page contains the following controls:

Add checkpoints so sequence is restartable on failure: Select this to enable restarting for job sequence in this project.

Automatically handle activities that fail: Select this to have InfoSphere DataStage automatically handle failing jobs within a sequence (this means that you do not have to have a specific trigger for job failure). When you select this option, the following happens during job sequence compilation:

For each job activity that does not have specific trigger for error handling, code is inserted that branches to an error handling point. (If an activity has either a specific failure trigger, or if it has an OK trigger and an otherwise trigger, it is judged to be handling its own aborts, so no code is inserted.)

If the compiler has inserted error-handling code the following happens if a job within the sequence fails:

·        A warning is logged in the sequence log about the job not finishing OK.

·        If the job sequence has an exception handler defined, the code will go to it.

·        If there is no exception handler, the sequence aborts with a suitable message.

Log warnings after activities that finish with status other than OK: Select this to specify that job sequences, by default, log a message in the sequence log if they run a job that finishes with warnings or fatal errors or a command or routine that finishes with an error.

Log report messages after each job run: Select this to have a status report for a job logged immediately the job run finishes.

Remote Page

This page allows you to specify whether you are:

Deploying parallel jobs to run on a USS system OR

Deploying parallel jobs to run on a deployment platform (which could, for example, be a system in a grid).

Logs Page

Use the Logs page to control how the jobs in your project log information when they run. The Logs page of the Properties window contains the following controls:

Auto-purge of job log – Enables automatic purging of job log files. Auto-purging automatically prevents the job logs becoming too large. If you do not enable auto-purging, you must delete the job logs manually. Use the Autopurge action options to control how auto-purging works:

Up to previous – Specify the number of job runs to retain in the log. For example, if you specify 10 job runs, entries for the last 10 job runs are retained.

Over – Purge the logs of jobs which are over the specified number of days old.

Enable Operational Repository logging – Writes job logs to the operational repository so that information is available to other components in the IBM® InfoSphere™ Information Server suite. Use the Filter log messages options to filter the information that is written.

·        To limit the number of informational messages written to the operational repository for each job run, select Maximum number of ‘Informational’ messages that will be written to the Operational Repository for a job run, and set a value for this option. The default value is 10.

·        To limit the number of warning messages written to the operational repository for each job run, selectMaximum number of ‘Warning’ messages that will be written to the Operational Repository for a job run, and set a value for this option. The default value is 10.

Advance: Grid Page

For a project, set “Enable grid support for parallel jobs” in the parallel page. Come back to General tab of InfoSphere DataStage Administration dialog, you cans see Grid button being enabled. Click the Grid to define master configuration file “master_config.apt”

Voila! That’s a very long post but I hope it is informative.